I was a poet, and I really, didn’t even know it. When poetry was introduced to me again in my senior year, I expected the worst: mindlessly going through finding out why this poet decided to have a blue bench instead of a red one. Boring. Instead, I was introduced into the world of slam poetry. I picked a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks and performed in front of my school. It was enjoyable. Soon enough, I tied second place performing Honey by Andrea Gibson and making it onto my high school’s first ever
Post-Modern writing often appears vague in nature, permitting the reader to infer deeper meanings upon reading the work, again and again. One feels compelled to reread the work, to better comprehend what is said in a just few sparse lines, as with Margaret Atwood’s very short poem, “You Fit into Me”. At first, the poem’s four lines appear to be deceptively simplistic in form, even a bit trite. Yet, when taking a closer look at the poem, it becomes clear that it’s so much more complex than it seems
This book tangles into the most dramatic parts of the L.A. community including Mafia dons, social workers, angry exes, murderers, and one very quirky eight-year-old, that make even the simplest romance complicated. In this literary work, " Someone Like You, By Susan Mallery " the author chooses physical objects which takes on a special significance that becomes a symbol of obstacles or setbacks in relationships, happiness, and success of the characters. Susan Mallery is a master at this aspect of
effect, where each word and line adds to the larger meaning of the poem. Like a number of Poe's poems, “The Raven” concerns an agonized protagonist's memories of a deceased woman. Throughout the narrative, the unnamed narrator’s emotional journey reflects the changes in his mind as well as the overall narrative. There are three sections in “The Raven,” most aptly described as the speaker
“The Boarded Window” was first published in the San Francisco Examiner on April 12th, 1891; Bierce made some revisions before including it in Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1892). To briefly summarize this story, a man named Murlock lives alone in the wilderness in a house with a boarded window. The narrator explains that the window was boarded up sometime after Murlock’s unnamed wife died. The narrator goes on to describe the strange events that happened the night after Murlock prepared his
Traveling Through the Dark Do you like real life stories with drama and plot twists? Are you tired of sunshine and happy endings? If you said "yes," or even "um, I don't know, I guess," then William Stafford's "Traveling through the Dark" might just be the poem for you. We lost you when we said "poem," right? Wait. Come back. You see, Stafford was an interesting guy. Born in Kansas in 1914, Stafford studied at the University of Kansas and the University of Iowa. Later, he spent many years in Oregon
There’s this sense of isolated detachment present in the poem “Telephone Pole” amidst all this communication. By using the center source a telephone pole through which all communication flows Hadara Bar-Nadava creates a powerful message. There’s this contradictory theme running through this poem, the object the poems about has this indifferent air, but it shows bouts of awareness and emotion especially in lines thirty-four to thirty-eight. The word choice appears to have a simple meaning but has
Robert Frost once said ¨In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life...it goes on.¨ Death of the Hired Man by Robert Frost is about Warren and Mary, who are the owners of the farm, have a hired man, Sila, who decides to leave them to find better work, but when his work goes down, he returns looking for jobs to earn money. Warren has had enough and tells his wife the actions he would take with Sila. Mary is a woman who has more in the positive side than her husband and she realizes
In the poem We Wear the Mask Dunbar considers that African Americans directly after the Civil War had to put on a metaphorical mask to the shame and guilt of hiding their identity. But Dunbar thinks that this just continues to evoke more pain and suffering upon the wearers of such masks as the “world dreams otherwise.” Though they have their freedom, what is freedom from slavery when they are enslaved by their emotions? Just as the speaker puts on a mask because he feels threatened by a world that
Robert Frost “Death of the Hired Man” Robert Frost once said ¨In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.¨ Death of the Hired Man by Robert Frost is about the main characters, Warren and Mary, who are the owners of the farm, have a hired man who decides to leave them to find better-paying work when the busy times approach; but when work is slow, then he will return looking for odd jobs to earn money. Warren has had enough and tells his wife what actions he should
Soraya Soraya was the wife of Amir and a flat, static character in the story. She had a gently hooked nose, luminous eyes, and a sickle-shaped birthmark on her jaw. She was kind and beautiful. However, because she was impulsive and rebellious in the past and ran away with a boyfriend, she had no suitors until Amir fell in love with her. She was loyal to Amir and supported his decision to become a writer. She was unable to have children, so she was overjoyed to learn that Amir was going to adopt Sohrab
In Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself’, one can appreciate the poem properly by understanding the poem’s voice, imagery, figures of speech, symbols, word choice, and theme. To understand it though requires a great deal of thought to arrive to the meaning behind the writing. Especially since this poem was written in the nineteenth century and is written in a very loose structure and free verse. Firstly, the speaker of the poem is an individual, Walt Whitman himself, as seen by the repetition of “I”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and its Allegories) Samuel Taylor Coleridge was one of the very first people to write in the romantic era, and one of the founders of the writings at the time. He was very famous for his new and different take on types of poetry. He practically invented the idea of a ghost story with his extremely famous poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In this story, a group of sailors are stranded in the ocean when an albatross comes by, bringing good luck and winds. The Mariner kills
The first time I was introduced to Romanticism in this course, I thought that I would be reading a lot of love poems and novels. But soon enough I realized how wrong I was and understood the real concept of Romanticism. It is a movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that reacted against the rules in literature, philosophy, art, religion, and politics at that period. Romantic writers meant to break out of what was usual and write about the things that no one dared to talk or write about
Legends abound in Charleston. And what better legend than one of a tragic love story? One of the most popular legends in Charleston is about a young girl named Anna Ravenel. Even today, Ravenel is a big and popular name in Charleston. In fact, when the Cooper River Bridges were demolished 2005, the new, larger bridge was named the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. There’s a town named for the Ravenels, a Ravenel car dealership, a realtor, and all kinds of other Ravenel “stuff.” In 1827, Anna Ravenel
I’ve always considered myself good at math and I decided to take pre-calculus in my sophomore year in high school. For me, math classes were much more enjoyable and meaningful that English classes. I understood math and hated analyzing poetry. Poetry was great and all but I loved algebra and I thought pre-calculus would be a nice little challenge for me. The first few weeks were really difficult for me and I struggled to keep up with the class. I got low Fs on my first two quizzes and that left me
Writers decide to start their texts different to others, they can follow a pattern; however, a writer chooses how they want to start their text, for example, a reoccurring beginning in Rossetti’s poetry is ‘in medias res’ where we are not given context and as readers we are thrown straight into the story. Another example is ‘The Great Gatsby’ which starts with the narrator, Nick Carraway, begins the novel by commenting on himself; furthermore, ‘The Kite Runner’ starts with the protagonist reminiscing
A narrative or story is any report of connected events, real or imaginary, presented in a sequence of written or spoken words, or still or moving images, or both. Narrative can be organized in a number of thematic or formal categories: non-fiction ; fictionalization of historical events ; and fiction proper . Narrative is found in all forms of human creativity, art, and entertainment, including speech, literature, theatre, music and song, comics, journalism, film, television and video, radio, gameplay
A narrative is a story that is created in constructive format (as a work of speech, literature, pictures, song, motion pictures, television, video games, theatre, musical theatre, or dance) that describes a sequence of fictional events. The word derive from the Latin verb narrate, “to recount”, and is related to the adjective gnarls, “knowing” or “skilled”. Ultimately its origin is found in the proto-Indo-European root Gno, “to know” The word “story” may be used a synonym of “narrative”, but can
ideas and help them understand the different situations of their society. Leslie Marmon Silko can transmit and illustrate a blend of stories through the use of prose and poetry, which reflect her personal stories and experiences as well as different traditions of Native Americans. In her book, Silko tries to combine photography, poetry, and short stories to express her traditions and heritage. The use of different genres helps her to show how culture evolves and how it is in constant change. Besides